Abstract & Keywords

This paper is an attempt to analyze the relative success of spoken poetry in the last decades. Poetry slams have become venues that attract more and more young talented people, larger audiences and the interest of the media. This should make us reconsider the role of poetry in the present cultural and social environment. I will insist on the importance of form and conventions in generating social networks that helped transform a marginal genre into a phenomenon most appealing to the young people as well as a financial success story.

Abstract & Keywords

This paper starts from the premise that norm, in the sense of a prescriptive tradition based on a set of standards deriving from past practices and regulating future ones, is the result of an initial creative gesture; in other words, first there was creativity and creativity became the norm. Based on this premise, the paper looks at some of the earliest African-American pieces of writing to trace the itinerary from creativity to norm, thus witnessing the birth of the African-American literary tradition. To this end, the paper analyses the first published Black narrative and identifies the trope of the talking book as illustrating that original gesture which, by creatively incorporating the norm, marks the beginning of a new tradition. Then the paper follows subsequent early Black narratives and identifies the creative transgression of the norm illustrated by the Middle Passage as the process by which the new norm is established.

Abstract & Keywords

This article will examine the validity of existing assessment procedures in the UK and compare and contrast these models with other possible assessment and accreditation models. It will also examine the possibilities for quality assessment (QA) procedures offered by the use of digital technologies. Implicit in this descriptive and analytical process will be an examination of the linkages between these models of assessment and the opportunity for professional registration. Issues addressed in this article will be: the status quo in the assessment and registration of interpreters and translators for the public sector in the UK; the impact of new social, political and economic realities on the existing assessment and registration regime; the opportunities and/or threats to quality norms represented by online digital technologies The material will be of particular interest to: end users of interpreter and translator services in the public sector; interpreting and translation test developers and QA procedure designers; interpreting and translating practitioners, in-service and aspiring.

Abstract & Keywords

The evolution of Translation and Interpreting Studies as scholarly disciplines in the last decades shows a series of shifts from micro to macro approaches, from text to context, and from language to society. These shifts are also accompanied by the development or reinforcement of what could be considered new areas of study such as Translation and Interpreting in Public Services (TIPS), Sign Language Interpreting, Remote Interpreting or Interpreting in Conflict. This paper concentrates on TIPS. The growing interest in TIPS is undoubtedly linked to the migration phenomenon; and the intervention of intermediaries who make communication possible is generally recognised. Despite this fact, the controversy regarding the role(s) these intermediaries perform appears to be a barrier to academic and institutional acceptance and recognition. Following the influence of Bourdieu’s social theory, it is my intention to apply it to TIPS in an attempt to explain the performance of these ‘visible’ interpreters.

Abstract & Keywords

The paper looks at the nonstandard, so called ‘plupluperfect’, construction If [Subject] had have [past participle]. Based on inquiries in WebCorp and the BNC and COCA, the paper shows the relative incidence of this construction in the available corpora. The investigation concludes that the construction is more likely to be found in Internet texts and communications. This prompts a brief discussion on the general nature of Internet language and its main characteristics. Moreover, taking into consideration the morpho-syntactic make-up of the construction, certain theories about its occurrence are presented. It is also noted that the construction is by no means new, having been attested centuries ago. Thus, the paper tries to tie in history with present-day trends in language and linguistics.

Abstract & Keywords

After briefly considering the debates centred on the teaching of L2 grammar, the paper considers the difficulties related to the teaching and learning of the English tenses while pleading for an alternative teaching approach based on the logic inherent in the grammatical system and categories.

Abstract & Keywords

In this paper I present corpus-based results that attest a recent syntactic change in written Romanian styles. Statistical analyses of various patterns of noun + noun constructions that were automatically extracted from the “Evenimentul” corpus (ca. 37 million words, time span: 1999-2003) demonstrate a trend towards linguistic economization in the noun phrase, manifested as a simplification of syntactic components (through the omission of prepositions or genitives), and at the same time as a complexification of logical relations between the nouns. This trend may have its source in the “wooden language” at work du ring the communist regime (that is to say, a language-internal drift during the second half of the 20th century). More recently, this tendency has been abundantly reinforced by the transfer of typologically determined juxtaposed constructions from lingua franca English, which has had a major influence not only on contemporary Romanian lexis and morphology (cf. Constantinescu et al. 2002), but also on syntax.

Abstract & Keywords

Starting from a parallel corpus of general use text s, this article investigates what kind of regularities are discernible in the formation of the terms used in the Romanian language of information and communication technology (ICT). After a brief presentation of the corpus that supported this research, the article begins with an introduction to the distinction made between the processes of primary and secondary term formation and considers it in relation to the concepts of translation regularities and norms as theorized by Gideon Toury. Starting from a concise examination of the sentence-based turn in translation studies, the final part of the article analyzes the main strategies used in the secondary formation of Romanian ICT terms (borrowing, loan translation, hybrid formation, and translation proper) and attempts to determine which of them could be seen as regularities that ampler studies could confirm as norms in this process.

Abstract & Keywords

This article focuses on the notion of creativity found in copyright law, which is opposed to the ways in which creativity seems to develop in daily practice; the idea of a ‘solitary genius’ is thus contrasted to that of a contextually and culturally dependent creator. Copyright is arguably too focused on the former image and fails to acknowledge or embrace the latter. In addition, the digital context which is also taken into account has contributed in many ways to broadening our views on creative practices and collective collaboration. The norm perspective found in the discipline of Sociology of Law, which is the theoretical support of our analysis, is of relevance not only to studies of norms in relation to creativity but also to those approaches the objective of which is to highlight the ways in which many legal concepts have been both challenged as well as trans formed and expanded in the attempts to regulate the digital domain. Finally, the analysis also shows that new expressions and metaphors are formed in an attempt to grasp and capture the new social and creative practices in an online context, while traditional concepts may suffer a ‘conceptual lock-in’